The ‘shareholder spring’ is bouncing its way across Europe, with French share-voting advisory firm ProxInvest yesterday complaining about the €16m bonus for the Publicis Groupe chief. Now the focus is shifting across the Alps towards Italy.

Shareholder returns from 38 of the largest Italian firms fell 19% last year, but the average pay packet for the chief executives of these firms increased by over 14%, according to research from Frontis Governance, an independent proxy advisory firm based in Rome.

On average, the director with the highest level of responsibility, be it chief executive, chairman or operating officer, was paid an average of €3.2m in 2011, compared to €2.9m in 2010.

The research follows news yesterday that ProxInvest came out against a €16m bonus payout for outgoing Publicis Groupe chief executive Maurice Lévy, ahead of the group's annual general meeting on May 29.

In Italy, executives also received generous golden parachutes. Cesare Geronzi, the former chairman of Generali, was given a severance payment of €16.6m when he left the insurer in April. Two months later, he was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the collapse of food group Ciro in 2003.

But for once, bankers have the more responsible pay packets, relatively speaking. Last year, the average top pay package at banks, insurers and asset managers was €2.2m, compared to €3.84 at the corporates.

While the executives saw their pay packets increase, the average wages at the firms analysed by Frontis Governance fell from €46,295 in 2010 to €46,093 in 2011. On average, it took the wages of 89 underlings to make up the pay of one Italian chief executive.

But before you feel smug about the current wave of activism in the UK, it is worth remembering the research note published by the Institute for Public Policy Research in January, which concluded that 87 chief executives of the FTSE 100 companies took home an average of £5.1m in 2010.